Lead Pharma, a developer of medicines for the treatment of immunological and oncological indications, has achieved a third milestone under its research collaboration with Sanofi, triggering an undisclosed milestone payment.

The collaboration aims to develop small molecules for the treatment of a broad range of autoimmune disorders, including common diseases such as psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease.

The partnership originated in 2015, when Lead Pharma and Sanofi entered into a research collaboration and licensing agreement to discover, develop and commercialize small molecule therapies directed against ROR gamma (t). The current milestone payment comes after the upfront cash payment at the start of the collaboration and two milestone payments in November 2015 and February 2017. Lead Pharma is eligible to receive further milestone payments and entitled to receive royalty payments on global sales from any resulting products. 

“We are delighted to have achieved another milestone in our collaboration, further validating the strength of our drug discovery engine and demonstrating our ability to work successfully with industry leaders like Sanofi,” said Arthur Oubrie, chief scientific officer, Lead Pharma.